1.4 Standards Compliance

eDirectory 9.1 is compliant with the following standards:

1.4.1 FHS Compliance

To avoid file conflicts with other product application files, eDirectory 9.1 follows the File System Hierarchy Standard (FHS). This feature is available only on Linux.

eDirectory follows this directory structure only if you have chosen to install it in the default location. If you have chosen a custom location, the directory structure would be custom_location/default_path.

For example, if you choose to install in the eDir88 directory, the same directory structure would be followed in the eDir88 directory, like the man pages would be installed in the /eDir88/opt/novell/man directory.

The following table lists the change in the directory structure:

Types of Files Stored in the Directory

Directory Name and Path

Executable binaries and static shell scripts

/opt/novell/eDirectory/bin

Executable binaries for root use

/opt/novell/eDirectory/sbin

Static or dynamic library binaries

/opt/novell/eDirectory/lib

Configuration files

/etc/opt/novell/eDirectory/conf

Read/Write, run-time dynamic data like the DIB

/var/opt/novell/eDirectory/data

Log files

/var/opt/novell/eDirectory/log

Linux man pages

/opt/novell/man

Export Environmental Variables

With the FHS implementation in eDirectory 9.1, you need to update the path environmental variables and export them. This creates the following problems:

  • You need to remember all the paths exported, so that whenever you open a shell, you need to export these paths and start using the utilities.

  • When you want to use more than one set of binary, you have to open more than one shell or have to unset and set the paths to the different set of binaries frequently.

To resolve the above issue, you can use the /opt/novell/eDirectory/bin/ndspath script as follows:

  • Prefix the ndspath script to the utility and run the utility you want as follows:

    custom_location/opt/novell/eDirectory/bin/ndspath utility_name_with_parameters 
  • Export the paths in the current shell as follows:

    . custom_location/opt/novell/eDirectory/bin/ndspath
  • After entering the above command, run the utilities as you would normally do. Call the script in your profile, bashrc, or similar scripts. Therefore, whenever you log in or open a new shell, you can start using the utilities directly.

1.4.2 LSB Compliance

eDirectory 9.1 is now Linux Standard Base (LSB) compliant. LSB also recommends FHS compliance. All the eDirectory packages in Linux are prefixed with novell. For example, NDSserv is now novell-NDSserv.